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May 1 is always fun as it is Dana's birthday! The day
started off with us having a breakfast at a restaurant of Dana's choice O in the
village of San Pedro, Guatemala on Lake Atitlan. After breakfast, we took
a panga across the lake to a nature reserve. The nature reserve has a
Butterfly Farm as part of it and we were very excited to visit there.
Inside the butterfly enclosure was a hawk O. He seemed nice at first, but
then began attacking us! Really chasing us down and attacking. It
was a case of him feeling threatened and us feeling threatened and it
escalated from there. Mike ended up with some ankle and leg scrapes and
after being trapped inside for a bit, (the hawk was guarding the entrance door)
we finally made it out safe and sound. Not many folks can claim to have
been attacked by a hawk! We returned to our home for the week O with a wonderful family in San Pedro while we attended another week
of Spanish school. When they found out that it was Dana's birthday while
we were there, they asked if we would like them to throw a fiesta for her.
It was a big surprise, neither Dana or Fletcher knew anything about it.
During the week, Mike and Nancy were scurrying through the small town to buy the pinata, cake,
tamales and various other supplies for the party. When we returned to
the house, Mike and Dana played games while Nancy decorated and helped to get
everything ready O. Finally the time arrived and down came the birthday girl
from our beautiful upstairs bedroom suite O. Boy, was she surprised! We
started out with the cake O. The tradition in Guatemala is that the birthday
person gets their face pushed into the cake. None of us were aware of
this, so we sure were surprised, it was very funny O. If you grow up there,
you know it is coming and the challenge for everyone else is to figure out how
to get your face close enough to the cake to have them make contact. Dana
really got it good since she had no idea it was coming O. After cake there
was music and the pinata O before the presents were opened O. Notice the
beautiful clothes that the women of the family wore O. Even the little five
year old was beautifully dressed every morning.

After our week in San Pedro, we crossed the lake to the village
of Panajachel where we spent the next 24 hours. This town is full of the
Maya people who dress in the traditional clothing as their everyday attire O.
It was the first place that we saw the men in traditional clothes also O.
All of the textiles and bead work are just amazing O. We had a lot of fun
looking in all of the shops and did buy a few things. Our whole time at
the lake had been quite foggy and hazy and we had yet to see the beautiful
views O. Lake Atitlan is said to be the most beautiful lake in the world,
but we had not been able to see it. Finally, on our last morning, the haze
lifted and we were able to see across the lake. It was indeed beautiful
with several volcanoes surrounding the lake O, which is itself a filled in crater
of a volcano. It is very deep, so the water is quite cool, similar to Lake
Tahoe. While in Guatemala, we also saw a few movies to learn about the war
experiences in the area. There are two that we would highly recommend, La Hija de
la Puma (The Daughter of the Puma) and Voces Innocentes (Innocent Voices).
These are both very good accounts of what it was like being a kid and teenager
during the war years. We wanted the kids to have an understanding of what
the people around us have gone through not that long ago. While watching
these movies, we were pretty embarrassed to be from the USA! We would just
kind of slink out of the theaters, it is amazing that these people like us at
all. We spent one more night back in Antigua before taking a bus back
across the border to El Salvador and making our way home.

When we got off the bus four hours later in San Salvador, we
grabbed a quick lunch before getting a Taxi to take us back to the boat.
We had the driver stop at a large market in the city so that we could stock up as the
boat would be empty of fresh food when we returned. We love where we are,
but provisioning is not the easiest here. When we returned to the boat,
the animals were of course thrilled to see us after being left alone for a
month O, but the boat was a mess.
We spent plenty of time trying to get a months worth of pet hair out of the
boat, it was May and they had been shedding quite a bit. Many people took advantage of us being
gone and really enjoyed getting their animal fixes for the year. Hopper
probably had more beach walks than he gets with us! We got all moved back into the boat
and began catching up on the school subjects that we did not cover during our
month away. The bay sure looked different when we got back. When we
left there were about 14 boats and most of them were unoccupied, when we
returned there were about 42 boats and most of them occupied O. What a
change! We saw lots of familiar faces from the past year of cruising in
Mexico and there were many kid boats now in the bay. Every afternoon when
school is done, all of the kids and grown ups meet at the pool for happy hour
and cooling off time. It is really fun and great for the kids to have so
many neighbor kids to play with! The second night after our return, there
was a huge freak storm with big, big winds and lots of lightening. One
large boat broke free from its anchor and ran into another boat. The
second boat's anchor held through the night with both boats linked together.
It was raining so hard that even when the lightening lit up the sky it was difficult to
see the end of your own boat, let alone see if there were any other boats headed
towards you. Mike and Nancy were up most of the night. One boat got
hit by lightening and lost all of their electronics. All of the locals
said that it was very unusual and that they had never seen anything quite like
it. The next couple of weeks brought more unseasonable and heavy rain and
lightening almost every night. Yikes, if this is what rainy season is
like, watch out!

Right after our return, Dana did her
first ever radio net O. When you are in places with several boats, every
morning there is a radio net where everyone checks in and says if there is
anything that the other boaters need to know. There is a standard format
which begins with asking for any emergency, medical or priority traffic and goes
on to announcements, lost and found, trades, mail carriers, etc... We also
talk about any special events or projects that the cruising community is having.
Dana handled herself like a pro, nobody even knew that it was her first time. The
next day, Fletcher stepped up and took the net. He had done it before, last
year, and
did a great job again. We had planned our return to be back in time for a
local fellows wedding that we had been invited to. The wedding itself took
place on another cruisers boat. After the ceremony, the family (and about 4
other cruisers that were invited) went back to the family home on an island
right in front of where we are anchored. This was a very fun event, lots
of food, kids playing, pinata bashing, toasts, and cake O. It was really
very special that we had been invited as it was mostly locals from that island
and the next island over. It was fun to get to know the locals on a bit of a
more personal level and also to see how a local wedding is celebrated. One
thing that we are really glad about, is that we got here a few weeks before the
rest of this huge group of boaters. Arriving early enabled us to get to
know some of the folks here a bit more closely. Now, there are so many
boats, the locals are not going out of their way to really connect like
they did when we first arrived. The advantage of having so many boats
here, is that all of the kid boats are getting together and having group kid
activities, like writing workshops for the kids O. We may also have an art
workshop day with one of the cruisers who is an artist. This is really
good for the kids and for the adults. It is great to have someone else teach the kids a bit
also.

One of the other pastimes/entertainments for us is to watch boats coming
into the bay. To get in, boats have to cross this sand bar with breaking
waves all around. (We were very lucky when we crossed! We just
scooted right in without any drama or excitement.) There is a two story palapa restaurant at
the point about a 15 minute walk away where you can watch the action. About a dozen
cruisers would go there when boats are coming in. Everyone brings their
binoculars and radios to they can keep track of what is happening out there.
Other folks go out into the channel in their dingies to help out if it is
necessary. The spot that the boats anchor to wait for the best conditions
for coming in is pretty far out. It is often very difficult to see where
you should come in. There is a boater couple that has been here for 3
years that assist everyone else coming in. They tell you that, "you are the
captain of your own ship", but they give you hints and try to guide you over the
shifting, shallow bar. This year there are more boats that have come in
than ever before, and there have been more boats that have had real problems
crossing the bar. A few boats broached (got rolled sideways by a wave),
one boat got swamped from behind, several boats had some pretty major damage,
but they did all make it across and into the estuary safely and still afloat,
albeit a big shaken up and the crew had some good bruises. The next event
will be when boats start to leave here. For most boats, this will not be
until the end of summer when the rains let up.

One day when we returned to the boat, it was full of bees
on the inside. It took awhile to get them all out. On another day,
as we approached the boat, a swarm of bees was just descending O. We managed
to make them decide that Desiderata would not be a good place to settle in!
Smoke and salt water were the deciding factors.

The next big excitement for May was Hurricane Adrian. One
of the reasons that so many boats are here, is that this is a safe area for
hurricanes. Historically, they just do not come here... We heard
about the possibility of its approach a couple of days in advance. Nancy
went and stocked up at the small local store with as much as she could stow.
Everyone in the fleet began to make hurricane preparations, which means taking
sails down O and clearing the decks.
This is a full days work and fills the interior of the boat. Once our boat
was close to ready, Mike began to prep the boats that did not have owners
present. Everyone helped everyone else and now it was time to wait it out.
The fleet also had organized a medical team, a communications team, and a
logistics team in the event that we were in an area where there was extensive
damage and injuries and that we were cut off from the rest of the world.
One of the most stressful parts of this day was that there was still a boat
outside that was disabled (a single hander with no engine, torn sails and broken and burnt hands)
and had not been able to get in since the waves were large. He had been
waiting for several days already and now with the added pressure of the coming hurricane, everyone was rooting for him to get in. Late in the
afternoon, with the high tide, he was finally able to get in to safety.
There was another boat out there that was trying to approach, he choose to go
further south and outrun the storm, since we were in line for a direct hit.
As evening approached, we all anxiously awaited the worst. We were all as
prepared as we could be. One good thing that came out of it was that Nancy
finally catalogued all of our on board medical supplies. We had gotten all
of our medical kits out and ready in case we had to set up an emergency medical
station on shore. Nancy figured that she had better get everything
organized so that someone else could assess what we had and what they might be able
to use. This has been on the list of things to do for about a year!
On our boat, the whole front cabin... the kids room, was full of all of the
stuff that we usually have on deck. We had taken the kayaks and surfboards
to shore and stored them at a friends house. Mike wanted the kids and
Nancy to go get a hotel room, but they refused to leave the boat and leave Mike
alone. We hunkered down to wait out the storm. We had our Ham radio
tuned in to the National Hurricane Center in Florida. They were doing
increasingly frequent updates as the hurricane approached land. The course
appeared to be steady and it was looking like the eye would hit land about 20
miles west of us. The problem with this information is that there is about
a 40-50 mile variance for the accuracy of these predictions. Given this
info, at any time it could have come right over us! It was pretty nerve
wracking to say the least. As it got closer, we got one report that the
airport, which is only 20 miles from us, had winds of 81mph. We were never
sure if we were going to get it at any moment. The highest reported winds
that we saw were about 46mph. The National Hurricane Center was very
impressed with the fleet down here for their preparations and level headedness.
We did get rains and wind, but nothing that much stronger than we had been
having over the previous couple of weeks. The next day was beautiful,
clear skies, quite anticlimactic. We all slowly came out of our boats and
began to unpack and put the boat back together. We were all a bit loopy
from lack of sleep and a build up of adrenaline in our bodies. By the time
everything was done, the kids had camped out in the salon for three nights O.
We kept a fairly normal schedule, doing school, cooking, and watching movies in
the evening. Like the hurricane that threatened us last fall, this turned
out to be a non-event, but again, was good practice in hurricane preparation.

One event had been postponed a few days because of the
hurricane. That was a school event on one of the local islands.
There is a big mothers day fiesta every year about this time, the whole month of
May is dedicated to the mothers O. The cruisers had taken up a collection to
help the school, and this day was to be the day that the goods were presented.
On the rescheduled day, about 50 cruisers formed a flotilla for the 20 minute
dingy ride over to this village of La Colorada. It turned out to be an all
day event with lots of games, contests and food. The kids did talent shows
for the moms and it was all around a very entertaining day O. All of the
boat kids had a chance to play together and to play with the local kids.
Some of the cruiser moms even got up on stage and competed with the local moms.
It was a very fun community event. Next on the list for good deeds is a
school that is on the island nearest the anchorage, Isla Cordoncilla. They
need a whole new building built! This is the school that the kids will be
attending for summer school to work on their Spanish skills. It is only 3
hours a day and they will get to know the local kids better.

As soon as we were cleaned up from the Hurricane, it was time to
prepare for visitors the next week. Mike's sister, brother in law, nieces,
and mom were scheduled to arrive in a few days. Once the Hurricane passed,
it was really beautiful weather. We were worried that they would cancel
because of the hurricane, but they didn't. The kids were so excited to see their cousins O. It
is always great when they can get together. It was 5 full days of pool,
beach, fun, and eating O. We could not keep the kids out of the water!
What a surprise! We ended up with a townhouse that had a full kitchen, so
we ate in the room about half of the time and even had a dinner party one night
with another boat family that we love. Nancy made spaghetti for 14!
We did some local excursions, nothing too far away. The biggest trip we
did was an estuary excursion to the mouth of the Rio Lempa, one of Central
Americas largest rivers. Along with this day is a stop at a very fun "stick"
restaurant that we love. The family that has it is so wonderful and our
kids really like their kids O. They just serve you what they are making that
day, there is no menu and no taking orders. They fried up some just caught
whole fish and some little shrimps. The kids dug right in O and even decided
to gross each other out by all eating the eyeballs! They really got into
it and surprised us all. After lunch the local girls offered to take all
of our kids out in the local dugout canoes for a ride O. That was a real
treat for them. We ended the day by going to a local pupusaria for dinner.
This is the local food which costs about $ .35 each. Nancy and the kids
will eat two for a meal, while Mike might eat five. Pupusas are a thick
corn dough stuffed with cheese, beans and a bit of meat. They are served
with a mild pickled cabbage and other vegetables on top and make a great,
inexpensive and healthy meal. During this time, our favorite boat had to
leave. They are on a time schedule and have decided to stop cruising for
now. They also are a kid boat and have decided that home-schooling is just
too difficult (a sentiment that Nancy shares). We accompanied them out to
the mouth of the estuary which looked very calm and perfect for leaving.
Right when they tried to cross, a set of waves came through and it turned out
that it was shallower there than they had anticipated. They grounded
themselves, turned sideways to the waves and had several heart-stopping minutes
while the waves came on them and threatened to topple them over. Our
hearts were in our throats as we heard and felt the waves slamming their boat
into the bottom. They finally made it out and are headed farther south.
Hopefully by the time that we leave, the swells will be flat and the channel
will be deep! The next day was spent mostly at the pool and beach and then
it was
time to pack everything up. We enjoyed a nice sunset on the dock and had
dinner in the room before the visitors 6am departure the next day. The
last day of May, we said our goodbyes and got back to our normal schedule of
school, only two more weeks left!

Back at the boat: Hopper returns, beautiful sunset, Dana does the morning
radio net, kids writing workshop at the pool, kids at a local wedding reception,
swarmed by bees.

Desiderata's decks are cleared and prepared for Hurricane Adrian, the kids
are both displaced to the salon as their rooms were packed to the ceiling with
everything else from the deck!

Mothers Day fiesta at La Colorada school on Isla Tassajera, the cruisers make
donations to the local schools.

The family arrives for a five day visit! The cousins have fun at the pool
and beach, every night was a sleep over, lots of fun and interesting meals were
shared, facials were popular with the girls.

The river trip: our panga and starting off with fresh coconuts on the way
to a distant beach at the other end of the estuary, Diana, Carol and Mike at the
beach, playing with the stick restaurant kids, another fun meal of fish and
shrimp, the trail to the bathroom, Nancy has a siesta, a cayuca ride for the
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